Return to Romance: The Strange Love Stories of Ogden Whitney

by Ogden Whitney, edited by Dan Nadel and Frank Santoro, introduction by Liana Finck; essay by Nadel.

New York Review Comics
120 pages
Publication Date: October 1, 2019

Ogden Whitney was one of the unsung masters of American comics. He is perhaps best remembered for co-creating the satirical superhero Herbie Popnecker, also known as the Fat Fury, but his romance comics of the late 1950s and 1960s may be even more unique. In Whitney’s hands, the standard formula of meet-cute, minor complications, and final blissful kiss becomes something very different: an unsettling vision of midcentury American romance as a devastating power struggle, a form of intimate psychological warfare dressed up in pearls and flannel suits. From suburban lawns and offices to rocket labs and factories, his men and women scheme and clash, dominate and escape. It is darkly hilarious, truly terrifying—and yes, occasionally even a bit romantic.

PRAISE
Ogden Whitney was one of those very unique artists who caught my attention with everything he did. Comedy or drama, I could always count on his natural style to take me on a pleasant ride.
—Jaime Hernandez

My hero.
—Dan Clowes

Ogden Whitney’s comics are about everything I’ve ever been interested in reading about, from make-outs to makeovers. Which is to say, they’re a little bit about men, but more importantly, they’re about women. This collection is both significant and delicious.
—Naomi Fry

This reprinting stays true to the comics’ original look and feel, in saturated colors on grainy, newsprint-effect paper … In his afterword, Nadel echoes [Finck’s introduction] to remark on the psychological precision and refreshing directness of Whitney’s storytelling, which is sure to ensnare new readers in this well-presented throwback volume.
—Annie Bostrom, Booklist

[Whitney] was a master of deadpan absurdity.
—Drew Friedman, Print

Unlike many artists from that era whose work is vivid but rushed, seeming almost primitive today, Whitney’s aesthetic is basically timeless, with ultra clean lines and bright coloring drawing out the exceptional level of detail in his backgrounds.
—The Cultural Gutter